RAPTURE ! ( it )

five.

RAPTURE !

005. ' the new kid on
the block '

FOR A FLEETING FEW MOMENTS, the Losers Club wavered in their places while their wide eyes fell on the hunched over the boy in the river currents. Even from her place in the tunnel, Amelia's ears could catch the heaving breaths of the wounded kid, and subsequently started to splosh towards the exit.

Once she stumbled out from the sewage water, Amelia hastened over to the river's edge in direction of the coughing boy, while the remainder of her friends stood rigidly behind her. As she made a clumsy way over to him, she toppled over a root and could feel the jagged end skid across her ankle.

"Shit," she hissed as the pain throbbed throughout her entire leg soon enough, but still mustered the fortitude to proceed onto the severely wounded boy.

The water envelops her as close as her skin and stings her oozing laceration to the extent she nearly tumbles over once more. Amelia finally reached the panting boy in the stream, and is unnerved by the intensity of his own injuries; blood was streaming out of his nostrils, his nose was partially crooked, and splotches of blood saturated his tee-shirt.

"Take my hand," she mumbled while steadying herself in the gentle currents, extending a generous hand to the disconcerted kid.

Dubiously, he clutched a trembling hand around her own and hoisted himself from his slouched position, his worn eyes leveling with her own.

"You're the new kid from school, aren't you?" Amelia inquired once she was able to scrutinize his slightly battered face. He sheepishly gave a nod with his cheeks falling red. "I'm Amelia Pipers."

"B-Ben H-Hanscom," he stumbled over his words while she gradually assisted him to his rugged feet.

He tottered a few moments on his feet, and she hastily leveled him with both her hands clutching his forearms, "It's nice to meet you, Ben."

At the rear of her mind, it registered in her just how delirious he was. Along with his unbalanced state, he was clammy and ashen, which only made her question further about what he had endured before he stumbled upon the barrens.

"Shit, what happened to him?!" Richie's voice was abrupt while he splattered out from the tunnel with Bill and Stanley.

Amelia slightly rolled her eyes when she squeezed an arm around Ben's waist, and started to aid him in the opposing direction of the shaft. She winced as the brisk water continued to swirl into her laceration, drilling into the area where smooth skin should have been, but it was only now raw and bloodied. She attempted with a strain to hasten their trek over the river, simply to discover it inflicted anguish on both of them.

The water splatters onto their faces with each lofty step they take through the water, and Ben seethed softly as it trickled over his wounds. Gauging a firmer clutch around his waist, Amelia proceeded on towards their bicycles, which was only a mere, few feet away from them now. Once they reached the stony shore, she couldn't have clambered quicker to her bicycle and yank it up from the shrubs with her free arm.

"Do you think that you can walk back to the trail? It's only a few minutes through the bushes to reach it," Amelia inquired to Ben, low enough for just him to hear.

He gave a slight nod in response.

Casting a sidelong glance to the other shore, she saw the remainder of the boys rigidly standing on the pebbles, gawking at the pair.

"Are you morons coming? Or should I just forget you here with whatever got to Betty?" Amelia clamored out to them in exasperation.

Her eyes lingered over the four for a couple moments in anticipation for any acknowledgment before they were diverted by a shifting figure in the hedges at their backs. Amelia's eyebrows furrowed while she peeked over at the trees, querying if it was whomever attacked Ben in search of him. But, her blood fell abruptly cold once her eyes wavered on a tousle of red hair and chilling cerulean eyes. Shit.

The clown from 29 Neibolt Street peered ignorantly out from the shrubs, and fixated his eyes on the wide-eyed children on the opposite side of the river. He gradually lifted a severed arm from his own hand, nonchalantly waving the flimsy limb at them - particularly her. Amelia's breath hitched in her throat along with the sour sensation of vomit. It was a child's bloodied arm. And some faint part of her knew it could have been Georgie's arm.

Ben and she concurrently shrieked at the awful scene their eyes were gazing at, which alarmed the four boys at the tunnel. They all started screeching questions at the pair of wide-eyed kids and demanding to know why they were even shouting.

"Run!" Amelia could only clamor back in retort as her eyes linger on the clown who settled himself within the vines. She could subsequently hear the flurry of splashing pierce the humid air as the boys clambered through the currents.

At the corner of her eye, though, Amelia noticed Eddie pause midway in the river to gaze over in the direction of the clown. Her heart hammered in her chest as the clown now started to swing the limb at her friend, gradually sliding a foot out from the shrubs.

"Eddie, come on!" she shrieked as a recollection of what the creature had done to Georgie flickered in her mind, "Come on!"

The boy wavered in his awestruck state, his eyes expanded to the extent it was impossible and his body evidently trembling. At this point, the other boys had reached the bank and were scrambling with their bicycles while shouting questions at Amelia and Ben. However, their spurt of inquiries was hushed by Eddie's ear-shattering scream and the subsequent splashes of water.

He barreled through the remainder of the river's water until he clambered onto the stony bank, chest heaving. With quivering hands, he undid his fanny pack zipper and recovered his inhaler, dragging three puffs into his mouth.

"Oh, did you get scared shitless by a fucking fish or something?" Richie quipped as he braced himself slightly on his handlebar.

"L-L-Let's just l-l-leave," Bill muttered and began to trudge in direction of the trail, hauling his bicycle along.

Stanley, including Ben now at his side, started to pursue after Bill with his own bike. And with a crooked smile, Richie rushed after them, mouth opening as he shouted down to them another foolish remark.

"What the fuck was that?" Eddie questioned in between ragged breaths as Amelia and him loosely trailed after the others.

"I don't know," she murmured in retort, her grasp on the handlebars quavering while she avoided his pressing gaze. It was the second occurrence that morning she had encountered that clown. It was pursuing her....it had to be....or else it wouldn't be looming in every place she was present at.

What if she eventually became like Betty? Missing without a trace and leaving in her wake articles of clothing for her friends to recover?

Or even worse....what if she suffered like Georgie did?

    ➯

author's note:

OVER 700 READS IN LITTLE OVER THREE DAYS!

I AM SO GRATEFUL FOR THAT.

THANK YOU ALL.

So, do you believe that Amelia will be taken by Pennywise?